Young bibi ‘A’ was married to ‘B’ with the mutual consent of two families. She was a cheerful and hard-working soul, full of life. Unfortunately, she could not give birth to a male child during the first five years of the marriage. This brought the wrath of her in-laws, particularly the mother-in-law. She would constantly taunt bibi ‘A’ for this handicap, something which was beyond the latter’s control.
And then one day, bibi ‘A’ was taken to a local clinic after receiving severe burn injuries. Her in-laws reported the matter as an ‘accident’. Her condition continued to deteriorate. On the advice of a local medical attendant, her family brought her to Patel Hospital, a local healthcare outlet which has the rare facility of treating burns patients. The hospital also extends sizable welfare aid to those who are needy, destitute and cannot pay for the treatment.
So far, bibi ‘A’ has been able to contribute Rs7,000 against total expenses worth over half-a-million. Her life has been saved and she is receiving uninterrupted medical care since her admission to the hospital in January, 2004.
According to the hospital management, this was not the first case of its kind. Several cases of burns of different types are brought, some of them in a very precarious condition. In June 2003, a 12-year-old boy was admitted after receiving acid burns injuries of the most severe intensity. The boy was first criminally assaulted by his tutor in a madressah, who then threw acid on him. The boy remained hospitalized for more than six months with the expenses covered through the patients’ welfare fund.
Treatment of burns injuries is extremely expensive. For hospital managements, it is usually considered to be a financially non-feasible service due to the very fact that majority of burns victims are very poor people. Such patients have practically no capacity to pay for the exorbitant cost of treatment. A large number of such patients are women who get burnt due to exploding kerosene stoves. Traditionally, their families seldom care for their recovery, specially when the victim is a sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law or even wife. Factory workers subjected to inhuman working conditions are the next frequent victims.
Treating burns cases is specially challenging for hospitals because, more often than not, patients are brought in highly precarious condition with minimum chances of survival. Often hospitals refuse to admit such patients to avoid ‘bad’ reputation due to potential increase in death entries on their admission scrolls. Another constraint is the long time of treatment. In normal cases it may take weeks, even months for recovery. For private hospitals, to block beds for so long becomes an unviable exercise.
Also, the probability of recovering medical charges are remote. Since the poor are mostly the victims, they can hardly afford to bear the high cost of treatment. It, therefore, makes a weak choice for fashionable private hospitals to include burns treatment as one of their areas of service. Besides, it requires intensive care both in terms of monitoring as well as equipment and space. It is for this reason that extremely limited burns care facilities are found around the country.
The Suleman Dawood Burns Unit at Patel Hospital is a welcome addition to this scanty list. Recently, the victims of the CNG gas station blast were also treated in this facility. The 50-bed unit has been recently set up through philanthropic contribution. It is open to all types of burns patients and claims to extend free service to those who cannot afford it. In addition, the hospital claims to conduct open heart surgery at very low rates and invites people burdened with financial constraints. Such support is arranged through philanthropic assistance as well.
Young bibi ‘A’ was married to ‘B’ with the mutual consent of two families. She was a cheerful and hard-working soul, full of life. Unfortunately, she could not give birth to a male child during the first five years of the marriage. This brought the wrath of her in-laws, particularly the mother-in-law. She would constantly taunt bibi ‘A’ for this handicap, something which was beyond the latter’s control.
